TESCO, BT, Unilever, Eversheds and the National Grid are among a number of companies who have committed to publishing data on gender equality in their workplaces, as part of a new Government scheme to promote equal opportunities.
On Wednesday Home Secretary and Equal Opportunities Minister Theresa May will announce the launch of the ‘Think, Act, Report’ initiative, which is aimed at improving transparency on gender equality issues, such as pay and position, in both the private and voluntary sectors.
The scheme itself is voluntary, but it is hoped more companies will follow the lead set by the likes of Tesco and BT and sign up. The reporting framework will provide a step-by-step approach for businesses through which they can recognise the barriers facing female employees, take action to address the issues raised and then report on the progress they make.
The initiative is the result of consultations with industry about the best way to boost the number of women in business, in particular those in the top jobs. Though focused especially on large and medium-sized businesses, it is open to all and small firms to have signed up already include small investment firm Sustainable Development Capital.
Home Secretary Theresa May said: ‘I am delighted that some of the UK’s most recognised and successful firms have volunteered to publish data on gender equality. Businesses should be congratulated for making this positive step towards greater transparency, which will help close the gender pay gap.
‘Equality of opportunity is vital to building a strong, modern economy that can draw on the talents of everyone. Over recent years women have made great strides in the workplace but there is still a long way to go.’
Currently 43 per cent of large employers carry out some form of analysis of their gender pay gap. However, only seven per cent of larger companies report externally on gender diversity in their organisations – for example, the gender composition of their workforce). Just 1.3 per cent of large employers report their gender pay gap externally.
In February of this year Lord Davies launched his independent review into ‘Women on Boards’. As part of this, Davies recommended that FTSE100 listed companies should aim for a target of at least 25 per cent of women on their boards, by 2015. The report also concluded that companies should fully disclose the number of women sitting on their boards and also working in their organisations as a whole.
A recent report by McKinsey and Company higlighted how greater diversity in senior positions has been linked to improved business performance. Yet despite progress in recent years women are still under-represented at senior levels in many occupations and on the boards of large companies. For example, just 8.8 per cent of members of FTSE 250 boards are women.
So what about those companies that have already signed up to the new initiative?
EVERSHEDS
International law firm Eversheds employs 3,000 people in the UK. They have taken a leading role in promoting women in the legal sector. They also monitor the proportion of women in their workforce by job role, enabling them to track the progress of women in the firm.
The number of women in legal advisory roles has increased but there has been ‘less progress’ in relation to the number of women becoming partners. The tracking has enabled Eversheds to assess where more work is needed to ensure women make it to the top.
Eversheds publishes diversity statistics on their website.
TESCO
Tesco is carrying out ‘ongoing’ work on anti-discrimination, equal opportunities and diversity, including looking at the issue of equal pay. It discovered there was a gender pay gap, but based on the amount of years spent in the role, rather than because of any discrimination.
In order to ensure women have better access to promotion and rewards it has created a Women’s network to provide skills development, mentoring and networking opportunities for female managers and directors.
It is changing the internal processes used when recruiting for management, in order to ensure that they are free of any gender bias. It is conducting a yearly gender pay gap analysis which is published in its corporate social responsibility report.
BT
Following its pay review in 2008 BT allocated 0.5 per cent of the pay budget to address equal pay issues, with £5.53 million spent on 17.8 per cent of employees.
It has restructured its non-management grading system to a skill-based approach taking into account equal pay. It says this has had a ‘levelling effect’ across the historical engineering grades which typically attracted men and the administrative roles which typically attracted women.
It has launched engineering campaigns to increase the percentage of women applicants and recruits.
BT is a founding member of Opportunity Now, a network of employers promoting diversity. In their most recent benchmarking exercise BT were rated platinum, the highest possible rating.
Tags: Equality, gender, gender equality, gender pay audit, pay, Theresa May, Women in Politics
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